day 13 here at lake arenal. wind was again strong, though not quite as strong as yesterday. rigged up a 5.4 North Duke sail (way overpowered). time to pick a board to go with that 5.4. let's see what's available:

a brand spankin' new 2014 fanatic freewave, 96 liters. oh yeah!

here's another shot:

so, how did it sail? amazing. as i mentioned, i have two freewaves as my main kit in san francisco: a 95 and an 84. this is the replacement for the 95 so my impressions are versus the 2010 or so 95 liter freewave.

i set it up with a small main fin and two thrusters set a little back from the middle of their adjustable range.

this thing IS more buoyant in the front of the board. they use nose protectors here in lake arenal and the nose protector won't even fit on the board. far too wide. all that buoyancy up front seems (to me anyway) to bring the board's pivot point slightly forward on the board relative to older models.

this makes the board feel more loose than my version, in a good way. it just wants to turn. then, when you add the fin configuration to it, boy, this is a loose board. the fins, even though the same general surface area as a single fin, are easier to break free. moreover, the board is more forgiving of smacking off waves than the single fin setup. the rail on the top of the wave is less "grabby" and it pivots much faster down the wave face (granted, this is swell in arenal, something like 3-4 or 5 feet tall today)

the combination of the fins and the front-loaded buoyancy merge into a very loose and slashy board. the other thing i found very interesting is the way the fins break loose. on a single fin board, when you cavitate the fin, the board goes sideways. with the triple fin setup, you can get a little ham-handed with the foot pressure and cavitate some of the fins. the board goes kinda sideways, but it still keeps traction. it's nice. it helps you to more easily understand the back foot pressure the thing will allow.

overall, this board to me seems like a major change from previous versions (yes, i sail the 2013's all the time as well). it's a departure from the incremental dev approach of previous freewaves. time will tell if it is successful, or will usher in the arrival of the next brand's killer freewave shape.

but for me, i think it's a hit. a big one. and i have nothing invested in fanatic. i'm happy to move to another killer board, if i find one. but i don't think i will; this year anyway.

on to another interesting factoid i encountered today.

we had a new arrival at the site today. a woman who sails at tarifa came for three days of sailing. she's a wicked good sailor and we had a super fun session this afternoon sailing together (you know, waiting when the other person blows a jibe). she was ripping on her 4.2 and enjoying the swelly swell.

after the session was over, she made the comment that, in her opinion, lake arenal sailing was better than tarifa sailing.

now, that's saying something. tarifa is a big 'ol name in the windsailing world.

her explanation was that it was "stronger than the steady winds at tarifa, and steadier than the strong winds at tarifa." she also said there were lots of kiters there too (sorry squeeze!)

after the morning session it's time for lunch: hot pasta with gorgonzola sauce and a delicious green salad. homemade postres are included, i chose the banana-chocolate muffler (aka muffin), but the cocoa bars are probably the most popular. then it's off to the hammocks for some R&R.

first, we rack up the gear:

and then off to the hammocks (there are lots) for a nap before the afternoon session(s):

there you have it. day 13. my apologies for the fact that, as isobars noted, i don't have lots of pics of the sailing action. but it's not like the hatch here. there's no gybatorium here. the actions is a little further out. after all, the lake is over a mile across, so a lot of the swell is out there a good whack.

will let you know how tomorrow goes. hope you guys are still liking the posts. trying...

and i think the gear in arenal is the best i have encountered thus far. it may be that you heard about the rental gear at the other (now defunct) sailing site called tilawa (aka hotel tilawa). they had gorge animal boards that were old and definitely pretty beat up...

Mr. Fick-shun is correct, you guys should read what he wrote before you jump all over him. What's he's really saying with all his self-congratualtory blather [aka response to tstizzle's request for help] is: "I can't tack"

And it sounds like you guys can't jibe tight and fast. In round numbers, in a 6 mph current, a fall lasting 33 seconds from stall to fall to reorientation to waterstart to planing again loses 100 yards. In those 33 seconds, the guy who planed through his tight jibe lost 10 yards, regained them to cross his own wake within seconds, and is 1,000 feet away from and something like a couple of hundred feet upwind of the tacker who fell. A stalled (non-planing) tacker loses less ground to the planing tight jiber, but he still loses ground especially in a strong downwind current.

Besides, a Bay/Delta local expert we all respect and many of you sail with discussed this issue with a WSing guru. That guru says nobody [not johnl, not even the upper pros] can plane through a [short board] tack unless they have a strong current pushing them upwind and they get a wind shift as they start their tack.

The guru was Andy Brandt.

I've never even tried to tack a sinker, and I've sailed non-sinkers only a few days in the last two decades. The last boards I tacked were longboards, back in the '80s, on which jumping from port to starboard without stepping on the nose was easy.

And it sounds like you guys can't jibe tight and fast. In round numbers, in a 6 mph current, a fall lasting 33 seconds from stall to fall to reorientation to waterstart to planing again loses 100 yards. In those 33 seconds, the guy who planed through his tight jibe lost 10 yards, regained them to cross his own wake within seconds, and is 1,000 feet away from and something like a couple of hundred feet upwind of the tacker who fell. A stalled (non-planing) tacker loses less ground to the planing tight jiber, but he still loses ground especially in a strong downwind current.
.

Actually no, what this sounds like is that YOU can't reliably tack a shortboard and therefor YOU would fall. For those of us who CAN tack a shortboard and can do it reliably it can be far more efficiently than sailing downwind on a jibe (which by the way people can fall doing also). And this is spoken by somebody who CAN tack AND jibe. I choose my tool for the job. I just don't use a hammer on everything......

As for the planning. You do know that Andy isn't from the Bay Area Delta right? And on the one tack I came close to planning on, after I tacked, I was still moving fast and all I did was pump the sail one time and I was back on a plane. Maybe that is the best that can be done. But people have been saying you "can't do that" about things for years and are constantly being proven wrong. I think it's good to strive to do better instead of just making the same ole turn day after day......

What I do find funny, is that you use Andy as a knowledge base when it suits you. Because he is one of the ones pushing to learn shortboard tacking EXACTLY because of the reasons I mentioned. So which is it Mike, is he a knowledgeable guru or not? Or do you just "quote" things that support your cause but ignore the ones that don't from the same source?

Last edited by johnl on Sat Jan 18, 2014 12:44 pm; edited 1 time in total

That's some good looking gear. Not the stories that I heard about old beat up gear. Glad you are having a great time...

hey johnl,

i sailed with you in the bay area i think before you moved to the gorge. i remember when you went because i was jealous!

did you hear that the gear in arenal was beat up and old?

Hey tstizzle that sounds like me

Now granted this was a few years ago, but I had heard that the gear choices and quality was a notch or two below most other places. Maybe it wasn't as popular then and the clientele was smaller. But definitely not what I saw in your pictures.

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forumYou can attach files in this forumYou can download files in this forum